The Solar Economy

CHAPTER	5
The mythology of fossilenergy

MYTHS, AS DEFINED by the French philosopher Roland Barthes (1915–1980), throw a veil of apparent immutability over the artefacts of human activity. They transform ‘anti-nature into psycho-nature’, creating an illusion of objectivity that obscures any bias, caprice or vested interest. Once mythologized, a given state of affairs is deemed to admit of no alternative. When confronted with real options, the myth gives rise to ‘an artificial delay in which it makes itself at home’. It turns itself into a ‘talking corpse’. Myths do not necessarily deny the existence of problems; they ‘simply cleanse them and absolve them of guilt’. Alternatives become no more than a Punch and Judy show, so that few dare ...